The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1887-05-22
OF INTEREST TO WOMEN.
What Some of the Busy Workers Are Doins
-Fancies In Dress Reform, and Otherwise.

What Some of the Busy Workers Are Doing
-Fancies In Dress Reform, and Otherwise
Special to the Indianapolis journal
New YORK, May 2L-Mrs. Jenness Miller has
established herself costly in Orange, and on her
daily trips in and out of the city is becoming the
subject of frequent comment on ferry and
car, ard in the street. by of her easy car
riage and quick, graceful. unfatiguable gait
81 walk vigorously. because am dressed for it. ,
she said to a fellow-passenger, who had some
difficulty in stepping off at the same rapid pace
the other day. MY clothing is not half the
average weight of the usual feminine outfit
The skirt of my dress is unlined. and wear no
hint of any under draperies at all; just trousers
of the dress material that don't interfere with
the walk"
Mrs. Miller has certainly done what no dress
reformer before her ever approached. She has
shown that a thoroughly hygienic costume,
health preserving and health giving. can be
made moro graceful and more abrasive than
the everyday dress Ia mode. Her advantage
is an immense one but it is her temptation as
WELL 1t is impossible to look at her, young.
1.-THE, prettier than is the luck of most OF
u.s. charmingly set off by the harmonious lines
of those dress reform gowns. and not feel that if
ever a woman had an opportunity to put through
q new crusade she has il, and may be- if she will.
instead OF Joan of Arc to be burned at the
stake of public opinion like her predecessor for
her courage, a nineteen th century Don Quixote
to laugh a world of follies away.
The very prettiness of the garb is it's da nger
She has made it pretty to steer clear OF known
rocks but if she is to mako it satisfactory or
suitable for general adoption she must show
what can be done for the everyday garb of the
business woman, or the teacher, who can't have
dust catching in founces, or a wilderness of
trimmings, or rich laces dabblng in ner ink.
The root principle of most of Mrs. Miller's gowns
ia excellent one. They leave the figure to its
own natural, untrammeled shape, and for the
receptionroo they are about as good as gowns
could be. But for the busy woman, who needs
relief from dress burdens most, they call for
ruthless cutting down to simpler and. perhaps,
for that very reason, yet more graceful garo.
One can't go back to Greek forms altogether. but
the art of the sculptor is better worth approx
mating than too close adherence to the weari-
some multiplication of dress-makIng furbelows.
Olive Logan has never been identified with the
woman suffrage movement, but she is shrewd
observer, and some interest may attach to her
judgment of the apparently inevitable, whether
desirable or undesirable, trend OF the times. 81
have never cared to take part" she said, in
cent conversation, lin the agitation for the bal
lot, because 1 doubt if the ballot is be OBJ
tanned in that way. But have kept myself for
years in touch with women, and they are taking
such place in every modern activity that it is
hard to see how that single distinction on ac-
count of sex can be maintained much longer. L
can remember when Margaret Fuller's let them
be sea captains, if they wi was too absurd even
to laugh at; but two women have become cap
tains within the year, and a woman has obtained
pilots license this past month The incon-
ceivable has turned into the actual. People
laughed at Lincoln for years They have almost
stopped laughing at Lucy Stone. and Mira. Stan
ton. and Miss Anthony now; they may reverence
them, too. by and by"
Miss Cleveland is fortunate in that her
work will make her q coadjutor of Mrs. Martha
j. Lamb. one of the clever women who are per-
sons ally desirable to know their pages are
satisfactory to read. Mrs. Lamb, who has filed
the responsible post of editor of thu Magazine of
American History for years now, is a
woman with firm grasp of facts and forcible
way of putting them. # she were inclined to
spread her honors abroad she has been the
recipient of many accorded to a woman
before She is member of believe thirteen
is the correct count-learned societies, and a life
member of the American Historical Society. She
is Fellow of the Clarendon Historical Society of
Edinburgh, and she is withal modest and I'M
assuming little woman one often meets.
Rather petite, slender and dark, with gentle
face, and hair just beginning to be frosted she is
a charming talker. vivacious, blithe and with a
ripping flow of keen. quaint humor.
Mrs. Lamb is assduous st her Office desk, but
she docs a great deal of her editorial work in her
home study in a suite of apartments, in a hotel,
where she has been quietly domesticased for al
most two decades Pictures, books and odd bits
of bric-a brac have accumulated about her. and
the nook is attr active to those who are
privileged with the entree. Mrs. Lamb is es
pecially kind to young writers, and the number
who owe her word of encouragement would
run up into the scores.